I couldn’t let this Christmas season go by without singing the praises of a company that has, up until now, in my book, been adequate, even very good most times, but not as amazingly, incredibly, efficient and fabulous as now!

It’s FedEx I am praising here, and let me tell you why.

Over this past weekend I ordered something (shhh, it’s a gift for someone who may (or may not) be reading this blog but I don’t want to spoil the surprise). It’s not meant to be given THIS Christmas but sometime next year as I have to actually make the gift myself, now that all the ingredients are here.

So, over the weekend I found, online, this item and loved it and ordered it to be sent to me…from England. Yes, from across the big pond. I was not in a hurry to get it as it’s just a project I am looking forward to starting, probably some time after the New Year. Anyway, I ordered it on one of the weekend days, I think it was Saturday, but being closed on the weekends, the company didn’t get my on-line order until Monday morning, very early.

Here is the timeline over which my little package traveled from England to the U S of A. Be amazed. Be very amazed:

When I got the email confirming my order on Monday morning, I saw the Estimated Time of Delivery to be December 4, 2012, at around 10:30 a.m. I figured that was a typo. They hadn’t gotten my order until 6 a.m. on Monday, the day before that. Surely, a package wouldn’t travel from England to here in one short day… could it?

I tracked the package using the link provided by FedEx. That was kind of fun, too. I got a call on Monday night from FedEx, as well, saying someone would need to be home here to sign for the package and that it would arrive here by 3 p.m. OK, a little later than 10:30, but who’s counting?

So I stuck around here (where do I ever go anyway) all day listening for the FedEx truck to come up the hill. I couldn’t do anything for fear of missing it. 3:00 p.m. came and went and no FedEx, however, I did keep checking the tracking site and it said it had landed in Peabody (next town over from here) at 3:04 p.m. so I knew it had to be on its way here.

Well, right around 4:30 (4:35 to be precise), in the darkness, the FedEx man came up the driveway with my little package in his hand, I signed his gadget, and off he went. So in the time span from 6 a.m. GB time (which would have been around 1 a.m. here) to the time the package arrived at my door, it was 15.5 hours.

Can you believe this?

I have sent so many things to England over the years, and have received things from friends there not to mention things I’ve bought, and the shipping time has always run into the weeks – not hours or days — weeks! Last year it was months because they had horrid weather and problems with the mail delivery, etc…

But 15-1/2 hours from order received to parcel delivered? This is incredible. I just wanted to share that with you all. I am singing the praises of FedEx today as I put my little Christmas manger up (in place of a tree as my tree bit the dust when I tried to get it in place).

Paul’s mother made a manger with little ceramic people and animals including baby Jesus in his cradle, etc… and we’ve had it since before we were married. I’ll see if I can find a picture. Ah yes.

Now this is not OURs. His mother made 3 of these mangers, one for herself, one for us, and one for Paul’s sister. This one above is his mother’s; photo was taken one Christmas at their (now former) apartment, showing Paul on the sofa with his Mom and Dad. Notice the manger in the foreground. Ours is just like that. Actually Dad built the wooden manger and put the straw in it, and Mother made all the little ceramic people and animals.

Below is ours:

(Funny note: Paul just came up from the basement and said he’d put my little 2-foot faux tree out in the trash barrel to be picked up later, and when he went down again, it was gone already. Someone had driven by and must have wanted it – so it’s got a new home already!)

Three cheers for Fedex having their Santa hats on and really moving those packages! I was amazed at how fast DH’s bread machine is supposed to get here via UPS but that’s from the States and it’s not here yet, so Fedex has put UPS to shame.

And kudos to Fedex for actually calling and making sure they can put the package into your hands, even if they were a bit late. Over here lately they just dump the packages in front of the door and don’t even ring the bell, even though we live right next door to a high school and anyone could walk over and take the package away.